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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28094355">Captive Bath Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem'>StarlightSystem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Super Mario Sunshine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bowser and Peach would have to both be trans and yknow what thats awesome, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, I don't know how to write shipfics i'm flailing, I forgot how heterosexuality works so sue me, Ignore the fact that it's wild that peach wouldn't know that junior is her son, It is not exactly a healthy relationship dynamic lol, Ok so Mario and Peach and Bowser are in a polycule but Mario is really weird about it, Peach only gets to see Bowser when he kidnaps her romantically</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:33:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,558</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28094355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Peach was hoping she'd get to spend some time with Bowser on her Delfino Isle holiday, even if she had to get kidnapped to do so. What she wasn't expecting was for his son to call her "Mama".</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Koopa | Bowser/Peach-hime | Peach Toadstool, Mario/Peach-hime | Peach Toadstool</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Captive Bath Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In a pink airplane soaring through the sky, Peach Toadstool sat and waited.</p><p>The plane was en route to the remote island paradise of Delfino Isle, where Peach was looking forward to being able to tie her hair up, kick back, and enjoy her first vacation in about a decade. Ruling a country was hard work, even with the Toad Parliament there to support her, and even when she spent half the time getting kidnapped.</p><p>On one side of her was Toadsworth -- her trusted advisor and friend. On the other was Mario -- frequent savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, and her longtime boyfriend. He was the one who’d convinced her that she needed to take some time off, and when Toadsworth came up with the idea of vacationing on a tropical island, it seemed like the perfect answer to their problems. Just a nice week of leisure, relaxation, and being with her loved ones.</p><p>Well, most of them.</p><p>A TV screen in front of them was playing a video promoting the island’s attractions and amenities. A good number of them looked rather fun. Mario gawked loudly at the pictures of succulent-looking seafood, and Peach had to stifle a giggle.</p><p>That giggle stopped short when she noticed a dark figure jumping around in the background of the video. A figure that looked eerily like the man sitting next to her.</p><p>“Mario?” She glanced at him, but he appeared to be too occupied by the thought of the seafood banquet to hear her. “That… that shadow? Toadsworth -” (she turned to face her advisor, who seemed similarly distracted judging by the large thought bubble above his head depicting him learning how to swim) “did you see?”</p><p>No answer from either of them. The video froze with the figure mid-jump, wielding what appeared to be a staff. It couldn’t possibly be Mario -- he’d never been to the island before -- so who could it be?</p><p>She didn’t know for sure, but something gave her the feeling that she might be seeing all of her loved ones on this trip after all.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It wasn’t long after they landed that they learned what the dark figure was.</p><p>Someone was masquerading as Mario and draping the island with magic graffiti. The local police fell for the ruse and immediately arrested her boyfriend, taking him to court and sentencing him despite her objections. He was tasked with cleaning up all of the graffiti so that the island’s resident spirits -- the Shine Sprites -- would return. For Mario, this was no longer a vacation. It was prison labor.</p><p>Mario’s sentence kept him extremely occupied, to the point where Peach would occasionally see him catching a few minutes of sleep between tasks while sitting on a rooftop. It was hard to enjoy herself without him around, though she couldn’t tell whether it was because she was worried about him getting hurt, or because she felt lonely sitting on the beach with only her guard Toads to accompany her.</p><p>It was a nice surprise, then, when she took a stroll through the plaza one morning and promptly got kidnapped.</p><p>Jumping out of nowhere, the imposter Mario grabbed her and took her to the nearby amusement park. He didn’t say a word as he climbed inside a giant robotic Bowser, even when she screamed and lashed out in faux distress. In truth, this was the first fun thing she’d gotten to do over the entire vacation. The whole “pretending to be Mario” part was kind of weird, but she supposed it was part of the game and that he’d take off his disguise soon enough.</p><p>The real Mario was close behind and took down the mecha Bowser with ease. It was then that her kidnapper finally revealed himself, the iridescent goop pulling back to reveal a certain spiky-shelled koopa… who looked a lot smaller than usual.</p><p>No, wait. It <em>wasn’t</em> Bowser. It was his son, Bowser Jr.</p><p>Peach stared with mouth agape, mirroring the confusion written on Mario’s face down below. Why would Bowser send his son to kidnap her? She barely knew the boy. She’d assumed she was getting kidnapped by her monster boyfriend to have a romantic getaway while Mario cleaned up the island. Babysitting someone else’s kid did not fit her definition of romantic. Judging by the flabbergasted look on Mario’s face, he -- jealous as he tended to get whenever she spent too much time around Bowser -- was almost certainly thinking the same thing.</p><p>Surprised as Peach was by seeing Bowser’s son, it was nothing compared to the emotional whiplash she felt at the words coming out of his mouth.</p><p>“Leave my Mama alone, you bad man!” Junior yelled at Mario. “I won’t let you take Mama Peach away!”</p><p>Peach felt like she’d been kicked in the gut, although her royal upbringing had taught her not to show it. “Mama?” she breathed. “Mama Peach? I’m your… Mama?”</p><p>“Yeah, Papa told me all about it. He told me my Mama got kidnapped by a bad man named Mario -” (Junior grinned at her in that self-impressed way that young children do) “so I came here to rescue her!”</p><p>A particularly violent spark shook the robot beneath her feet, and she had to hold onto the railing to stop herself from falling over. Her head was spinning, both from the malfunctioning mech and the thoughts racing through her head like a feral motorcycle.</p><p>She was a mother?</p><p>How?</p><p>“But why would you pretend to be Mario?” she finally blurted, unsure of what else to even say.</p><p>Junior grinned at her again, and sneered at Mario. “Papa told me everything. He said ‘Mario’s a bully, he never fights fair! Junior, you gotta try to outsmart Mario.’”</p><p>Peach held her breath. Fair? Was that how Bowser felt about her relationship with Mario? It was true that she spent most of her time with him, but Bowser had never raised any objection to it before.</p><p>Although, if Junior really was her son, that changed things. She didn’t know how to feel about that.</p><p>“I tried to get Mario sent to prison,” Junior continued, “but they didn’t lock him up, and now he came to steal Mama Peach again! You… you pest! Stop following us!”</p><p>The top of the robot opened up, revealing a massive balloon which billowed out and lifted the robot’s head off the ground. Peach watched Mario shrink into a speck as the balloon flew them away from the park, and she remembered too-late to reach out and call his name like a damsel in distress.</p><p>Oh well. She had more important things to think about than Mario’s rescuer power fantasies. Like the fact that she apparently had a child, who was at that moment jumping around with glee at the success of his plan, and excitedly telling her all about his Sonic action figures. She tried to smile and follow along but her mind was miles away, buried in questions upon questions.</p><p>As the balloon approached Corona Mountain, she wondered if she’d find some answers soon.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>“Peach! Look at the hot tub we rented! It’s at the top of a volcano!”</p><p>Bowser trudged forward and dropped the boat containing his son into the water. Junior squealed in delight, and immediately started splashing around and getting water everywhere. His father grinned at the boy’s antics, before turning back to see Peach still standing a bit behind them.</p><p>“Come on! Are you ready for captive bath time?”</p><p>The smile she flashed back was a little lopsided. “Umm… you mean regular bath time?”</p><p>“Uh, sure… We can call it that.” The tub wobbled beneath their feet as Junior started firing toy rockets from his boat, their explosions providing a soundtrack to the awkward stare the adults were holding. “You like the whole ‘surprise kidnapping’ thing. Don’t you?”</p><p>“I do! I do.” A rocket exploded above Peach’s head, sprinkling her with water. Spluttering, she took out her parasol and opened it up. “Can we just… Your son told me I’m his mama.”</p><p>Bowser cocked his head, and the tub wobbled again from the huge weight that was shifted by the action. “So what? You knew we had a son. You’ve seen the boy before. I figured a family vacation would be a good time for you to finally get to know him.”</p><p>“That’s not it. That’s... I knew you had a son, but I…” The hand gripping the parasol began to shudder. “I had no idea he was mine. How was I supposed to know? You never told me.”</p><p>“Who else’s would he be? You’re my forever girl.” His last sentence came out as a low growl, and Peach clenched the parasol so tightly that it almost snapped in half.</p><p>“I didn’t know you were exclusive!”</p><p>The sound of splashing abruptly stopped. Peach clapped her hands to her mouth, surprised by her own outburst, but once she started yelling it was hard not to keep going. “I know we’re dating but I’m also dating Mario, and there was that summer with Daisy, and I- I know we talked about being open but that applies to you too! I thought there’s <em>no way</em> a handsome guy like you isn’t seeing at least three other people. But now I find out you’re not interested in anyone but me and that we have a <em>son</em> together? It’s a lot to take in.”</p><p>“But- but-” Bowser’s forehead crumpled. “Are you <em>mad</em> at me for not dating anyone else?”</p><p>“No- no, I’m just confused, I’m- I’m always with Mario these days. He always wants me around and I’m fine with that, but you’ve got a family now and if I’m only around when you ‘kidnap’ me...” Her voice shrank to little more than a squeak, unsettled by how sad Bowser looked. “It feels unfair. To you. And our son.”</p><p>The koopa’s face went through about seven different emotions as he tried to figure out how to respond, but before he could manage to he was cut off but a different voice.</p><p>“Mama? Papa? What’s going on?”</p><p>Bowser spun around, almost capsizing the hot tub, and put on a big, fake grin for his son. “Don’t worry about it, Junior, we were just talking about grownup stuff. Hey, you wanna see a Koopa Kannonball?”</p><p>Peach watched him take a few steps back for a running start -- saw the defeated look he shot her out of Junior’s eyeline -- and braced herself on the floor. He launched himself into the air and crashed into the water, displacing half of the contents of the tub into the caldera.</p><p>Junior cheered, still sailing around in his pool boat despite most of the tub being taken up by his father. He waved at Peach and she forced a smile on her face. There was an oversized rubber duck in the tub, and she cautiously settled down on it, using her umbrella to float to it over the water.</p><p>“Come on in, Mama Peach!” Junior giggled, splashing her with water.</p><p>Peach looked into the depths of the tub and caught sight of the Shine Sprite resting at the bottom.</p><p>Of course. Mario would be there soon to defeat Bowser and then she wouldn’t see Bowser or his son again until the next kidnapping. How was she supposed to figure out this whole family thing if she barely got to spend any time around them? Mario hated it when she planned visits with Bowser -- he never said it out loud, but the look on his face showed that he didn’t trust Bowser and was unhappy that she did.</p><p>But she did trust him, she really did. Maybe more than she trusted herself.</p><p>“Um…” she finally responded, seeing Junior tilt his head in confusion. “I think not.”</p><p>He shrugged, and kept splashing around. “More pool for me, then!”</p><p>“Gwahahaha, that’s my boy!” Bowser laughed. He glanced at Peach, his massive head completely dwarfing her on her duck float, and his lip wobbled. “Your Mama just doesn’t like to swim. That’s all.”</p><p>Peach closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Bowser, can I -”</p><p>There was a loud noise, and the platform the hot tub was on lurched. A figure appeared from over the side and glared at the three of them. In the haze of the hot tub steam, he looked like an apparition. A ghost, not of a person but of a hope. Exactly what Peach was hoping, she wasn’t sure, but either way she knew there wasn’t a point anymore.</p><p>“Mario!” Bowser roared, slamming his fists onto the sides of the tub. “How dare you disturb my family vacation!”</p><p>Mario said nothing, but squared his feet on the ground and gripped the controls of his water-spraying backpack. There was a high pitched squeal and he shot high into the air like a rocket, just as Bowser started breathing fire everywhere and Junior launched a missile from his pool boat.</p><p>Peach closed her eyes again. She didn’t need to watch to know how things would turn out.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>In the aftermath of the battle, Peach and Mario went one way, and Bowser and his son went another.</p><p>“Junior…” Bowser took a deep breath, causing a gust of wind to knock all of the coconuts off a nearby tree. “I’ve got something… difficult to tell you about Princess Peach -”</p><p>“I know she’s not really my mama.”</p><p>Bowser opened his mouth to correct him, but faltered before any words could come out. He took in the sad look on Junior’s face -- saw it again in his memory of the hot tub, when the boy had been so excited to spend some time with his mother and was met instead with uneasy detachment.</p><p>Junior really was Peach’s son, biologically speaking. And Bowser did love her deeply -- he still couldn’t imagine himself with anyone else.</p><p>But she was barely a part of Junior’s life. Family, really, was a concept that transcended biology. A family was a group of people who were truly there for one another, and Peach simply wasn’t there for her son. So maybe the boy was right. Maybe he couldn’t really call her his mother.</p><p>“Someday, when I’m bigger,” Junior continued, snapping Bowser out of his thoughts, “I wanna fight that Mario again.”</p><p>Bowser cracked a smile. He was sure that the boy didn’t really understand the complex relationship his father had with the plumber in question, but it amused him nonetheless. “That’s my boy! Well put, son! The royal Koopa line is as strong as ever!”</p><p>He paused to look out across the water, taking one last look at the scene of a failed vacation. Delfino Isle sat there against the backdrop of a sky at sundown, cut out of the darkness by a wispy crown of light -- the glow of the Shine Sprites returning to their resting place. He patted Junior on the shoulder. “But for now, let’s just rest awhile.”</p><p>In the distance, a smattering of fireworks illuminated the sky with letters spelling out Mario’s name. Peach Toadstool stood beneath them, one hand enveloped in Mario’s, the other holding her parasol, still charred and ashy from the fight in the volcano. Turning her gaze away from the twinkling lights, she caught sight of a single boat sailing away from the island, and an awful heaviness settled in her chest.</p><p>Mario squeezed her hand, and Peach felt so, so empty.</p>
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